Uniting a III-Nitride Transmitter, Waveguide, Modulator, and Receiver on a Single Chip

The integration of III-nitride electronics and photonics is of great interest toward future computing systems with low power consumption. Multifunctioning multiple quantum well (MQW) diodes can address the challenging issue for on-chip integration of a light source, which is a key component to drive the photonic circuits. Herein, a transmitter, waveguide, modulator, and receiver are monolithically integrated on a III-nitride-on-silicon platform to perform light emission, transmission, modulation, and detection simultaneously. Both the receiver and modulator exhibit sufficient sensitivity to optical signals from the transmitter, which has an identical InGaN/AlGaN multiple quantum well (MQW) structure because the III-nitride diode provides spectral overlap between the emission and absorption spectra. On-chip data communication among these optical components is achieved using light, and the effective wavelength range is from 365 to 385 nm, in which multifunctional devices can be operated.